Quisling! An AFB does Japan (No PanzerKat)

[John B.]

Well, plan Perth went very nicely so far. This resulted in about 300 VP in ground troops (or 1 CV worth of VP) and I also netted 286 from strat bombing before I assaulted the city. I did kill a few small units earlier which probably balances out the losses of my regiment at Port Augusta and the ships that died when Scott got into my convoy. I really have no desire to stick around, it's just too far away from anything so I've sent the first convoy to start pulling the troops out.

[John B.]

But, Scott has not been idle. It looks like two armored regiments took the long coast road. One of my armored units was swatted aside with no loss to Scott. This is annoying and I hope my AT guns (47mm) can hold them up. As he gets closer he gets in my air range which, again, I hope can slow him up somewhat and cause casualties. My bombers can go in at very low level since he has no AA.

[John B.]

Things are going quite nicely in China. Scott has too many troops up near Sian (almost 90 units). So, I put together an army and blasted my way through Changsha and then crossed the river on the bounce. This means the little industrial triangle near Changsha will soon be producing supplies for me and not for Scott. With Burma sealed shut China has to rely on the Chungking/Kunming area for supplies and I intend to keep the pressure on. As I pick up his cities its very easy to gain an additional 20 VP by building the airbase up two levels. Not much supply expended and a CL worth of VP. What's not to like.

But, I wonder if this will prompt an early move by him in Burma. Something to take the pressure off of Chaing?

Also, Rabual is slowly falling under siege. I really have paid no attention to the So. Pac. I think his carriers are heading back that way and I wonder if he's got something up his sleeve for the far north.

[GetAssista]

ORIGINAL: John B.

Things are going quite nicely in China. Scott has too many troops up near Sian (almost 90 units). So, I put together an army and blasted my way through Changsha and then crossed the river on the bounce. This means the little industrial triangle near Changsha will soon be producing supplies for me and not for Scott. With Burma sealed shut China has to rely on the Chungking/Kunming area for supplies and I intend to keep the pressure on. As I pick up his cities its very easy to gain an additional 20 VP by building the airbase up two levels. Not much supply expended and a CL worth of VP. What's not to like.

But, I wonder if this will prompt an early move by him in Burma. Something to take the pressure off of Chaing?

Go clear the rail and march to central plains from the two directions - south and north east (given you have Sian). His troops inbetween would have a hard time with no supply sources left. He really should think about full retreat now, atleast on the Sian front. No point for him in keeping LCUs there. And no point for you in attacking there too, instead encircling and cutting supply routes would do.

[John B.]

GetAssista,

I think you're right (and since it's Scott's first game as the Imperialists I told him as well). He has too many units up near Sian. I don't have enough divisions to assault his two monster stacks up there and if I peel stuff off to go around I'd run the risk that they'd be isolated in bad terrain while Scott launched a straight ahead attack and broke through. I'm happy just bombarding him and pinning down so many units.

So, my main thrust is in the south and my main goal is to get next to Chungking before his line solidifies. Crossing that final river will be tough but then at least he'll be in clear terrain and subject to ruthless bombardment from the air.

I think the other factor affecting China is that I have captured all of the internal oil wells. I suspect that some fuel leaks over from India/Ledo but for the most part his heavy industry is shut down and not producing any supplies.

[Aurorus]

ORIGINAL: John B.

it's Scott's first game as the Imperialists

Spoken like a true JFB. You may never go back to the imperialist camp.

[John B.]

All I want is a Co-Prosperity Sphere? Who could be against co-prosperity?

[Bif1961]

Some are more equal than others in Japan's version of co-prosperity.

[Aurorus]

ORIGINAL: Bif1961

Some are more equal than others in Japan's version of co-prosperity.

Imperialist propaganda!

[John B.]

Hello all,

Not much worth posting as thing were moving along with no major battles. But, we've made it into early June and there is some news to report. Here is the current VP screen. Still maintaining a nice VP lead but, of course, it's June 1942. If only the game ended here.

[John B.]

Here is the current production screen. Nice stockpile of HI building and, in other news, supply production in China seems to have increased nicely. I have not been shipping supply in but the attacks are going on fully supplied and the industry I bought earlier is continuing it's slow build.

[John B.]

In bigger news, the KB (minus Shokaku and Zuikaku which are refitting for radar!!!) moved to Truk and it seems that I caught an allied convoy of large APs and AKs napping. I'm moving into the middle this turn to try to catch survivors and then will head back to truk. I think the American carriers are away and Scott does not have significant land based assets there. These may, of course, count as famous last words.

This should help slow down his push in the central pacific.

[John B.]

I'm actually a bit surprised that more did not get sunk but the KB did not launch an am raid. [:@] Still I'll guess that the Atlanta will go down but not the CV, it just has bomb damage. These are large 20 point APs so this should dent his APA's in the future. I toyed with the idea of trying to hide the KB for a larger strike but a bird in the hand etc...

[John B.]

So far the Perth raid has gone very well. I've pulled out two of the three IDs and the last one (the mighty 5th) is set for the next boats out. Scott lost two armored units to air attack (tanks with no air cover in the desert and no AA don't last too long). Now I'm pounding the units you see on the map. He'll take that southern port since I have nothing there and then be able to fly in aircraft all be it with no maintenance but I'm having fun killing tanks for free. [:D] This is the price he pays for putting all his AA at Moresby. He did wipe out an AT battalion that was on the train when the tanks showed up so it's probably a wash, but still nice to kill his units.

[John B.]

Scott is making a major push in Bruma. that's one of the Aussie divisions you see up by Mykankia (sp?). I have three divisions in the theater, another one is on the way and I may send at least two of the Perth divisions up there. I don't want him clearing out Burma is 1942. The Aussie divisions are very good and he has a bunch of other ones so this is likely to be a big fight.

[John B.]

But Scott needs to break the stranglehold on China. As you can see, it's been reduced to the core. This is the very very tough part of China to take but he does not have a lot of supply. I'm going across the river near Chiking this turn so wish me luck.

[John B.]

A couple of questions. First, does having a large number of units in a hex dissipate the effect of bombardments. Scott keeps a lot of Chinese HQs with his corps and I wonder if that reduces the effect of my aircraft and artillery. In a similar vein, should I put lots of units on islands that he'll attack (e.g. Guam) to reduce the effect of his shore bombardment or does that really matter? My hope is to have Guam and Saipain and level 9 forts by the time Scott can attack them. Those islands are worth a lot of potential VP to him so it will be tough for him to bypass them.

Other question is does the moral of level bombers go down faster if they bomb at very low altitudes? My Sallys flying out of Perth have plenty of supply and air support squads flying from a fully functional level 4 airbase. But, they have morale of 32 and 42 respectively and it keeps sinking. I fly them at 3,000 feel since that seems to be the prime armor bombing altitude and I'm not losing planes as ops losses so I wonder if it even matters (and these bomber crews are getting sweet sweet experience points).

[Aurorus]

ORIGINAL: John B.

A couple of questions. First, does having a large number of units in a hex dissipate the effect of bombardments. Scott keeps a lot of Chinese HQs with his corps and I wonder if that reduces the effect of my aircraft and artillery. In a similar vein, should I put lots of units on islands that he'll attack (e.g. Guam) to reduce the effect of his shore bombardment or does that really matter? My hope is to have Guam and Saipain and level 9 forts by the time Scott can attack them. Those islands are worth a lot of potential VP to him so it will be tough for him to bypass them.

Other question is does the moral of level bombers go down faster if they bomb at very low altitudes? My Sallys flying out of Perth have plenty of supply and air support squads flying from a fully functional level 4 airbase. But, they have morale of 32 and 42 respectively and it keeps sinking. I fly them at 3,000 feel since that seems to be the prime armor bombing altitude and I'm not losing planes as ops losses so I wonder if it even matters (and these bomber crews are getting sweet sweet experience points).

6K seems to be the sweet spot for bombers if there are no 40mm to maximize effect and minimize morale loss. Taking Flak will reduce morale quickly, even light ground fire.

You need to reinforce Burma quickly. 3 divisions is a very weak position there that the allies can overrun now. You will probably want at least 6 divisions, reinforced with armor, AT guns, artillery, and flak very soon. This all depends, however, on how many Indian brigades you crippled or destroyed when taking Burma. You should be getting some 47mm AT guns units now. Get some to Burma.

And get the 5th Divison out of Oz! That is THE division. Park that beauty in Burma and do not let it become isolated so that it can fall back to Bangkok eventually. In a heavily fortified position in good terrain with artillery and AT gun support, that division is a bear for the allies to defeat.

As to Guam and Saipan, forts 9 is very hard to achieve and extremely supply-intensive to build. Forts 7 is probably the better play on Guam and Saipan. Guam and Saipan are critical: absolutely critical. You have 4 coastal gun units that are not static, including the Wake Island unit. I recommend placing one at each location with good minefields. In 1943, you want to think about garrisoning Guam and Saipan at division-level strength, reinforced with some armor, AT guns, flak, and a few of the heavy artilery units: not the pistol 150s... the heavy guns... 30cm guns. You will also have a few PT boats that you can place there. Also, air raids on these islands will come from CVs, which means dive bombers. Those "machine-cannon" units from Mancuria are actually very useful here in wrecking allied DBs and very stacking limit friendly. Because they contain guns, they will also soak aerial and naval bombardment: the coastal guns as well. Any unit with guns will soak bombardment and help draw it away from infantry and armor units.

[Aurorus]

One other little unit to notice are the Ya-go engineering tanks in Manchuria. These were small wire-controlled vehicles containing shaped charges that were to be used against bunkers. They have a very low stacking cost and a very high anti-armor rating. These are excellent for any allied armor on atolls in the Marshalls or to defend against allied invasions that contain armor.

[John B.]

Excellent points as always. I have another division in boats on the way to burma and two more that can head out from Soerebaja.

There are AT guns on each island already as well as a little bit of flack. But, thanks for the tip on the machine cannons. I'll keep the fort level 7 goal in mind but if I get time I may try to push them up to 9 since they are such obvious candidates. Heavy artillery is an interesting idea. But, since guns absorb bombardment perhaps that's a good use for the silly little mortar units and mountain guns. The wake CD unit is already at Saipan and I"ll hunt around for the other mobile shore defense units.

5th division is in strat mode and the trains are pulling into Perth where the APs await so, with some luck, they will be boarded and on the way to Burma in four days or so. I'm thinking its the perfect division for Moulmein since I think that's the key hex to use to bottle up the allies after they push me out of Burma. I do have some than units there (yawn) three armor regiments and lots of AA that is sitting on the oilfield. I also have three indpendant regiments.